Edtech start-up Manara recently announced raising $3 million in pre-seed funding from Silicon Valley investors (SVIs) to launch world-class careers for the top female software engineers in the Middle East and accelerate the region’s progress in becoming a globally-recognized hub of tech talent.
The Edtech startup further explained that Manara’s solution empowers cohort-based learning for software engineers and computer scientists through a secured digital platform that has permitted it to scale rapidly across the region. Manara’s success metrics point to the quality of the talent in its pool. On average users’ salaries have increased by 300%.
The firm further reported that 86% of the engineers from Manara’s last cohort received job offers within five months of graduating, with more than half of those offers coming from FAANG companies. Manara charges its community members and hiring partners, only if a successful match is made.
The Edtech startup platform further explained to bring together a community of world-class tech professionals who provide mentorship and networks to help MENA engineers land a top tech job.. The quality of this community is further reinforced through progressive vetting as engineers reach certain milestones.
“Communities can be extremely powerful if you are smart about how to curate and connect them – the trick is knowing when one hour of a Google engineer’s time has the highest leverage,” stated Iliana Montauk, co-founder, and CEO.
“We received more appetite from investors than we could accommodate, signalling an increasing interest from Silicon Valley in platforms that facilitate online and offline communities, and solutions to access highly-skilled talent from emerging markets.”, Montauk adds.
Manara claims its planning to utilize this investment to scale its prevailing cohort-based solution to go from 60 engineers per year to 6,000 engineers per year. Additionally, the team plans to promote a self-service product for interview practice, networking, and mentorship that can reach millions of software engineers.
“I grew up in Palestine and realized quickly that to become a world-class engineer I needed to work on highly scaled products with experienced teams,” stated Laila Abudahi, co-founder and CTO.
“After I reached my dream through lots of trial and error, I wanted to make it easier for people back home to do the same. Ultimately, these engineers will become the CTOs and senior developers that the region needs in order to accelerate the growing success of its own tech ecosystem,” Abudahi continues.
“Europe’s tech sector is growing quickly. There’s a massive need for new solutions to access talent, whether remote or onsite. The Middle East and North Africa are an obvious fit because of their proximity and time zones. We’re very excited to back the first startup bridging these two markets – and are particularly excited about the founders’ commitment to women engineers.” commented Carlos Espinal, Managing Partner at Seedcamp.
